The structural disorder of glasses allows them to have a multitude of properties that are absent in crystals but can be exploited in many technical applications [1]}, [2]}, [3]}, [4]}. The downside of this disorder is that it has hindered us to come up with a reliable microscopic description of many of these features
since at present we lack a solid understanding how the atoms are arranged on the level of the particles [2]}. Prominent examples of these properties are the specific heat of glasses at low temperatures, the electric conduction properties of glasses [6]}, [7]}, or the plastic deformation of the solid upon applied load before the yielding point [8]}.
While in crystals dislocations and disclinations allow to rationalize the plastic deformation [9]}, the structural disorder of glasses makes it impossible to come up with a reasonable definition of a defect and as a consequence it becomes very challenging to establish a connection between the local structure and the yielding of the sample, despite a multitude of efforts [10]}, [11]}, [12]}, [13]}, [14]}, [15]}, [16]}, [17]}. Although the local structure of systems composed of particles that have a mesoscopic size (colloids, granular systems,...) can be determined on the level of the particles [18]}, [15]}, [20]}, the mechanical properties of such materials are dominated by particle-interactions that are mainly of excluded volume type, i.e., very different from the ionic or covalent interactions found in atomic systems. As a consequence our understanding on how the local structure and interactions affect the mechanical properties of materials like metallic or oxide glasses is far from being satisfactory, despite the long history of research on this topic [21]}.
